"Samurai!" Exhibit at WAM

Turning now to the local scene here in Worcester, MA, the Worcester Art Museum has been in the midst of an integration of exhibits of armory and weapons from the now-closed Higgins Armory, which for a long time had been the place to go for exhibits of that type. In fact, it had been the only museum of its kind dedicated to arms and armor for over 70 years. Sadly for the locals here, due to lack of funding, the Armory closed in 2013, and its 2,000 pieces were transferred to a newly built wing of the WAM which opened this year. The Armory building itself is a piece of history worth studying, but for our purposes, we'll hold that aside for now.

Beginning April 18th, the WAM opened an exhibit of pieces of Japanese arms, armor and weapons called "Samurai!" The pieces come from the old Higgins Armory collection, and the museum uses these as a jumping off point for showcasing modern interpretations of this ancient tradition in paintings, drawings, paper sculpture, and a variety of other media from Japanese and American artists. That exhibit runs through September 6th.

Last week, from May 5th through May 9th, artists Andrew Hem, Mari Inukai, and Audrey Kawasaki painted a gigantic Samurai themed mural in the Lancaster Lobby of the museum. Definitely worth seeing! And as if to take the Samurai legend and tradition further, May 17th is Star Wars Day. The event runs from 11am-5pm, and is free with Museum admission. Featured will be Jedi Knights and Imperial Stormtroopers as well as the Rebel Legion and 501st. Should be a fun time. The weather looks great for Sunday. If you're in town, come check it out. For those of you in Northern Worcester County, it's not a long ride, 40 minutes to an hour. Definitely worth the trip. See you there.

More Later
KCD
Visit www.theworkofart.net

P.S. Here's a taste from the Lancaster Lobby. 

Enough Already!!

According to the Telegram & Gazette, we the residents of Worcester, MA received 108.9 inches of snow this season. Now, we've had winters like this before. In fact, we have a list of snowiest winters on record in recent years, and we have a record, set in the winter of 1995-1996, that still stands: 132.9 inches. That's more than twice our normal of 65 inches. Last year, as the locals will tell you, we didn't have anything that resembled a "normal" winter. Any such notions of that becoming a trend were swept aside by the blizzard that was Nemo in February. Yesterday, Saturn wrung itself out over the region. We got 22.8 inches. Hooray for us. This is more our speed. I'm waiting for someone to suggest that we had a "mild" winter. Yeah. Maybe on your planet. Meanwhile on this one, the argument for a more characteristic winter in this region has been made.

SO ENOUGH ALREADY!!